Optics

Current

A team of researchers has created a scalable production method for a class of nanoscale lenses using the electrostatic forces between charged nanoparticles, enabling wider application of the technology.

With the advent of fibre optic networks the bandwidth of the internet increased dramatically. To decrease bottlenecks in next-generation internet speeds, current electronic switches are being replaced with optical equivalents.

The speed of the internet is largely reliant upon optical fibres which carry information, and the electronic devices used to encrypt and decrypt. This project looks at creating optical circuits smaller than the wavelength of light, to provide extremely high processing speeds.

It has long been known that solar energy can be used to create electricity for heating and lighting. However, it can be also used to drive important chemical transformations such as the creation of low-cost water purification for developing countries.

Black silicon provides a unique platform for a non-reflecting, all-direction-absorbing surface, which can be used for sensing and fingerprinting of molecular and microbial contamination. This is done by sensing the light scattered in air, water, food, body fluids by various compounds.

Current chemical sensors pose a variety of inhibitors to their use such as cost, portability and reproduceability. Development of a new, ultra-thin, 2D optical material enables the rapid, sensitive and inexpensive detection of toxic chemicals in air, water and soil.

Researchers from the University of Melbourne and CSIRO have developed nanometer sized optical antenna based on every-day radio frequency designs. The novel designs are focused enhancing radiation from a single photon emitter.

Nanostructures fabricated with metal nanoparticles hold great promise for applications in biosensing, optical analysis, computing and solar energy conversion. One approach looks at programming the spontaneous self-assembly of nanoparticles into the desired architecture.

Many biological molecules are chiral, meaning that they come in left-handed and right-handed forms even though they are chemically identical. Detecting these forms is important as their handedness affects their interactions.

In this project a set of processes were developed to fabricate nano-scale metal structures in order to study their interaction with visible light. The ultimate goal is to incorporate these structures into all-optical signal-processing devices.

In sensing applications, it is necessary to create strong light field enhancement on a nanoscale. The challenge is to increase the light field enhancement, which is limited by the “sharpness” of the edges and corners of nanoparticles and is linked to fabrication resolution.

Through the characterisation of gold nanoparticle surface assemblies and the manipulation of their electric field hot spots, researchers at MCN and Monash University are looking to increase the sensitivity of biosensors.